Post-acquisition but pre-merger, we were promised by our company's CEO that nothing would change. It's on video.
And then they did. Drastically. Along with our salaries when they canceled perks that had been considered part of our salary and did not provide any salary increase to make up for that. For many, that was an immediate 7-10% loss of income.
On a company-wide call last month, a slide said CS was changing pay scales because staff in LCOL (low-cost of living) countries were "overcompensated". Really? Do they do different work than their colleagues in London or Paris? Should they be paid less simply because they live in Nigeria, Portugal, or Croatia?
And then they try to sell this as a BENEFIT. They actually tried to spin this as "equalizing" pay across a large organization.
I've spoken to some of the founders of my former company and they said that they were at a place where they either had to start buying up competitors or sell. None of them were interested in running a larger company. They were made many promises by the CS team that they would treat us well, that CS loved our culture and perks, that they wanted to bring that to CS as a whole.
It was a LIE.
The founders feel awful about what has happened.
Layoffs were kept hidden at first. Then, there was another round that was announced and colleagues disappeared mid-chat on Slack minutes later.
I've heard from many who were laid off that they needed to hire a lawyer because CS was violating labor laws in their country with the way the layoffs were handled, as well as the the amounts being offered as compensation. CS is a European company. You'd think they'd have competent legal staff who know the laws.
Everyone I know from all 3 organizations (Heap, HotJar, and CS) are desperately looking for other jobs, any job. People are leaving every day. Many have said privately they're leaving for mental health reasons because they can't take it anymore, the environment is too toxic. When people leave without something lined up in this job market, you should really take a look yourself.
